A question for teachers re year 6 please?

[Blackdog19]

I’ve heard that first to go back to school are likely to be year 12, 10 & 6. I can understand 12 & 10 as they’re obviously pre big exam years but why year 6 particularly? I’m just curious. Do you think may still do Sats to allow for progress reviews for secondary achievements?

I have a reception age and a Y3er. I'd still argue for Y6 to have some transition over and above my own dc.

A week put aside in June or July where they go in (in small groups) to learn about what's expected at Secondary, then on the Friday, all secondaries in the region open only for the new Y7 cohort for the day.

I’m phoning 50 feeder schools for an intake of several hundreds. I think any transition day will happen early September.

My Y6 is an adolescent. If I even believed all the talk of children under 10 not passing the virus on I don’t see how it would apply to her and a lot of the girls who’ve matured already.
I know her school isn’t doing social distancing as we’ve seen the teachers and children in school during online classrooms and be told by the children still going in.

The school is fantastic in many ways and of course she’s missing out on lots of education and social experience. I don’t want the. Virus in this house though and we already know that no one else here will be going back to work until August/September because of the industries we work in.
I do wonder if each school will be told to make its own decisions as to which children to go back. They may do that in any number of ways. Mornings and afternoons, siblings, birthday.

Can’t. Have you ever had a child in Y6?

Yes, two. One who had become a selective mute on a previous transition between schools and was for a long time thought to have ASD (symptoms were in fact caused by school-induced anxiety).

If schools could go back 'as normal' - full classes, able to practice a play, do trips, go on planned residentials, travel to the council chamber to do debates, able to visit their new secondaries en masse on transition days and spend a full day with their new class, do inter-school and within-school sports competitions, have a disco or party, do a final assembly to a packed hall of well-wishers - then absolutely, I would say that they should be in school to experience all these rites of passage.

What I am saying is that this year, none of that will be happening. None of it, whether the Year 6s are the 'priority year' allowed back into school or not. It is this 'not a normal year' version of Y6 that I am saying should not be given priority, or at least not priority over the educational needs of other years.

As I have said before, IF a safe way can be found to do it, Year 6 visiting their new school in small groups would be great (probably straight from home, then back home), Y7 tutors calling every new Y6 should be a priority, conversations between Y6 and Y7 teachers must be scheduled, secondaries should be planning an extended induction process, and if at all possible, Y6 should be able to come back into school for the final week, even if the school is closed to all other years to enable this.

But those saying that Y6 should go back because they must do the full half term of 'normal' end of primary activities - I'm really sorry, that;'s just not going to happen, and the 'Corona alternative' is not worth sacrificing the education of other primary years for.

With resignation date at the end of May, y7 tutors won’t necessarily be decided yet.

secondaries should be planning an extended induction process

It’s a bit hard to plan anything when we don’t know what schools will look like in September.

Our induction process involves only having Y7 and Y12 in on the first day (fine), an extended tutor time the next day (fine) and then into lessons. There’s then a day off timetable in the first couple of weeks for teambuilding at PGL (hmmm).

Plus, any time when school is shut for everyone apart from year x the attendance people Complain

I do wish people would stop posting bollocks like this as if anything is a certainty yet:

reception will go back first but there may be additional support for those deemed at risk with transition. All schools have been asked to identify those children.

It's spreading misinformation. I report posts like this and I wish others would too.

@cantkeepawayforever I started out disagreeing with you - I have a Y6 child and am of @noblegiraffe's mind on this - but actually I think the compromise that Y6 should get a transition but that the other years need education time more is reasonable. If there could be something, even just say the final one or two weeks of term, that would help.

My experience of transition in the early 90s. Most either went to the Grammars or the nearest comp. Only an handful went to other comps.
Induction day (I had to miss half to go to my dad's funeral, and felt like I missed out on the first few proper days)
Visits to the school for community events like the school show.
Visits from the secondary school staff pastoral team.

Due to the standardising of the curriculum, and key stages, our area changed transition from 8 & 12 to 7 & 11 in line with the rest of the country, and we were the first y7s in the secondary in a generation, and the secondaries had a double intake of y7 & y8.
Some years later, my form tutor was talking about it, and remembered a staff meeting prior to our joining, that our year group had not been the oldest in the juniors. We hadn't had so much opportunity for responsibilities (no prefects, head boy/ girl), we were younger and less mature/ independent.
In some ways, this situation is similar. Y6 can not even walk around the corner to their friends' houses (well maybe they might be let out to do exercise solo, but that's pretty lonely and aimless for most).
A lot more y6 at our school walk to and from school without parents from Easter when the days get longer. They've not had that gradual build up to prepare.

I have a y2, but as it's a combined school there is no transition. Usually infants and juniors are on the same site with continuity of management even if the buildings and playgrounds are split. If more transition is needed for a more separate juniors then they'll also need a build up. The transition to secondary is much bigger though as the whole scale and organisational side is so much bigger and more demanding.

Oh and going up a year "early" meant we missed out on the residential trip that the 4th years/ y7s got.

Education minister has said that Years 5, 10 and 12 will be the priority

Our school have been in contact ti say if they can get Y6 back in they will, only to do the fun end of primary stuff and some transition to secondary.
I hope they can as I have a 31st August born child who simply isn't ready for secondary yet, but has to go. It's taken a long time to get her up to where she needs to be and that has been blown apart by Covid19 unfortunately.

We're an organisation that supports schools with free online learning resources. We know how difficult it is for schools to support their Year 6 transitioning to secondary school this year and have teamed up with Academies Enterprise Trust to produce three videos covering what pupils leaving primary need to know, how they may be feeling and stressing the importance of organisation!

The modules are called Head, Heart and In the Bag. Here's a link to the flyer with more information: form.bereadygroup.org/BeRemarkable

And you can sign up to see the videos here: bereadygroup.org/year-6-transition/

They're completely free and aim to fill the gaps in the support that Y6 are getting this year. Hope you find them useful.